The epic poem Odyssey focuses on the Greek character Odysseus and his ten year journey from Troy to Ithaca after the fall of Troy (Trojan war). The poem covers both the circumstances that befell his family in Ithaca and his own perilous adventures back from Troy. Whilst in Odysseus absence at home, his son Telemachus and wife Penelope have to deal with suitors who move into their home, in an attempt to take Odysseus place and ask Penelope's hand in marriage.

The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon and continues to be read in Homeric Greek and translated into modern languages around the world.
The original poem was composed by a rhapsode, and its conversion into written work is a debatable issue. The Odyssey was composed in 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter. The most extraordinary part of the poem is the modern plot and that the events construction depended as much upon the women as the warriors. Today Odyssey occupies and important part of classical literature.
Homer was a celestial personality for the ancient Greeks. Along with his work he was a source of model for his heroic conduct. His epics, poems have inspired many poets, storytellers, and dramatists such as William Shakespeare.
His works have been translated into English by George Chapman (1616) and Alexander Pope and they occupy a permanent place in classical literature.